Overview of Iran's Economy:
- Wednesday, 25 January 2017 09:07
NCRI - According to Iran’s Central Bank, the amount of money that is owed by the Rouhani government has increased by 170 percent. At the same time, the government’s debt to other banks shows a 152 percent increase over the past three years and eight months.
The state-run Fars news agency quoting economic experts on January 14 reported, “A sharp increase in government debts’ has disarrayed banks’ balance sheets, decreasing their capacity to provide bank facilities even further.”
According to another report by the state-run Khabar Online news agency on January 14, debts owed to the Central Bank by other financial institutions have surpassed 100 trillion Tomans (US $28.572 billion). Meanwhile, private commercial banks have experienced the highest growth in debt with an 82.5 percent increase.
The Central Bank’s figures show that from 2014 on, the amount of growth in debts has been 1,072 percent for public commercial banks, 30.5 percent for specialized banks and 688 percent for private banks and credit institutions, the state-run Khabar Online news agency reported on January 14.
Overall, the growth in banks’ debts to the Central Bank has changed course from specialized banks towards public and private commercial banks.
The main index of the Tehran Stock Exchange was down again last week, falling 368 points, equivalent to a loss of half a percentage point, causing traders to suffer a two percent loss year to date, according to figures published by the state-run Asia newspaper on January 17.
Also the amount of liquidity was up again, reaching $332 billion by the end of November 2016. The figure shows a 28 percent increase compared to the same period in the previous year and a 14.2 percent increase compared to March 2016.
Meanwhile, a 27 percent decrease in capital formation in the past four years as well as a negative growth in the mining sector has raised concerns over the future of Iran’s economy.
Despite retired teachers’ chanting ‘Poverty line four million, our salary one million’ in front of the regime’s parliament in Tehran last week, the parliament’s research center announced that the poverty line for Iranian individuals is 1.8 million Tomans a month. Meanwhile, the minimum monthly wage in Iran for workers is 812,000 Tomans and government employees generally receive less than 1.8 million Tomans a month. These figures show that nearly all the workers and most office employees are living below the official poverty line in Iran.
